


The World Is A Stage and I Am Merely A Player

by Rozavie



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Betrayal, Canon Compliant, Computers, Gen, Good Guy Gone Bad, Hacking, New York, New York City, No Romance, Post-Canon, Spoilers, Theft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29012373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rozavie/pseuds/Rozavie
Summary: (Warning: This story includes spoilers for season 4 of Netflix's "Carmen Sandiego.")After losing contact with Carmen in the aftermath of V.I.L.E's downfall, Player found himself with a lot of extra time on his hands. While other young men might apply for college, or take up a new hobby, the pint-sized computer prodigy began to find his day-to-day life exceedingly boring.His little hobby of moonlighting as the anonymous entity "The Hermit" started with some simple, inconsequential data ransom scams. But once the excitement of that challenge faded away, soon Player was stealing money, information and, eventually, assisting criminals and former V.I.L.E operatives with grand theft. And before he knew it, he had become the most sought-after criminal hacker in the world.But when Carmen's new partner Sonia, a former art thief hailing from Mexico, starts poking around, Player's dangerous hobby takes a very unexpected turn.
Relationships: Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep & Zack, Gray | Crackle & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, Ivy & Player (Carmen Sandiego), Ivy & Zack (Carmen Sandiego), Player & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, Player & Gray | Crackle, Player & Zack (Carmen Sandiego), Sonia & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, The Chief & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Comments: 46
Kudos: 66





	1. Prologue

“By the way, how’s the college hunt going, Player?” Carmen spoke into her earpiece as she glided to the ground on her paraglider. It wasn’t every day that one got to jump off the roof of the world famous Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, but this much had become a regular part of Carmen’s life. Another heist-thwarting had gone exceptionally well, and the crimson-clad vigilante was in the mood to chat with her oldest friend.

“Not too well,” Players voice came out through the speaker, interrupted with a deep yawn. Back in his hometown of Ontario the 18-year-old was thumbing through five different college pamphlets. “There isn’t a single university, in Canada or otherwise, that catches my eye.”

“None?” Carmen retracted her paraglider and started her casual stroll down the National Mall. She offered a nod to the gaggle of A.C.M.E agents who had gathered outside of the museum to apprehend the thieves and recover the jewels that they had stolen. “You realize that there are literally thousands of schools between the United States and Canada to consider, right?”

“I know, I know.” Player sighed and pinched his nose softly. “But I just know none of them are going to challenge me enough.”

“True, you _are_ a computer genius.” Carmen tried to make her voice sound as comforting as possible through the speaker, “I know senior year has been tough for you, but you’ll get there. You should take a break, make some friends your age. Have fun before you have to be an adult.”

“I don’t need friends,” Player said with a chuckle. “Maybe I should just forget about university and keep helping you instead?”

Carmen stopped in her tracks and pressed her finger softly against her earpiece, Player’s words bouncing around in her head. “Player…” she ventured gently. “You can’t throw away your future, or your youth, for me.”

“I’m not throwing anything away,” Player insisted. “Why would you say something like that?”

“You need to live your life, Player.” Carmen bit her lip, a graveness settling into her voice as she realized the reality of what she had to do. “You need to live your life without Carmen Sandiego.”

“Wait, Red!” Panic rose in Player’s voice. “What are you doing?”

Carmen removed the earpiece and clutched it in her shaky, gloved hand. She spoke into it one last time, “Goodbye, Player,” before crushing it into the pavement with her heel. And for the first time in six years, since first meeting Carmen, Player’s world went silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! And welcome to my newest passion project, spurred on by one simple question, "What if Player went bad?" 
> 
> I wanted to give people a heads up that there is a "kidnapping" in this. There is not explicit violence, and nobody is actually ever in any physical danger, but I realize that that theme could be troubling for some readers. I don't want anyone to be taken by surprise!
> 
> And with that warning, I hope you enjoy my story!


	2. Chapter 2

Sonia started into the clear night sky, her head spinning, and her half-upchucked lunch sitting sour at the back of her throat. How had yet another mission gone so terribly, horribly wrong?

She sat up after a few seconds, clutching her tender, bruised side. That stupid mime hit a lot harder than she thought.

“Are you okay over there, Sonia?” Carmen’s voice crackled in through Sonia’s earpiece.

“Hardly,” the young girl huffed. “Another former V.I.L.E operative like we thought. And he got away. Just like the last five times.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Carmen assured her young partner. “A.C.M.E is coming to pick you up and take care of your injuries. I’ll meet you back at our headquarters once you’re all patched up.”

“Will do, boss.” Sonia leaned heavily against a wall as she awaited her knights in blue blazers.

Once her torso had been wrapped with ice, and she was given a clean bill of health (besides a couple of broken ribs) Sonia left the operatives and made her way back to where she and Carmen had been staying.

They called it their headquarters, but to Sonia, it just looked like a normal house which happened to be located right next door to Carmen’s mother’s orphanage. It was an okay place to live, but Sonia couldn’t help but wonder if “headquarters” wasn’t too grandiose a name for such a humble abode.

“I’m back,” she called into the house as she flopped onto the couch. Every inch of her hurt, and she just wanted to sleep. However, she knew that she wouldn’t get the chance for a nap for at least another thirty minutes. Carmen would want a full briefing on the failed mission, a story that Sonia was not eager to tell.

“Good to see you back.” Carmen strolled into the living room from the kitchen. “Someone got you pretty good.”

“It was that stupid mime,” Sonia complained. “I don’t know how I got my butt kicked by a French clown!”

“Mime Bomb wasn’t the best of V.I.L.E’s operatives, no,” Carmen sat next to Sonia on the cushions as she spoke. “It’s hard to believe that he could have gotten past so many defenses, including A.C.M.E on his own. And that he could have been busted from prison without anyone raising a single alarm.”

“You don’t think this guy was in cahoots with…?”

“Our mysterious hacker friend The Hermit?” Carmen chuckled sardonically. “That is exactly what I think.”

This incident checked all of the boxes: security systems rendered absolutely useless, the thief equipped with a mini EMP generator to take out any A.C.M.E tech along the way, and so on. This was the work of The Hermit, Carmen was willing to bet on that.

“This ‘The Hermit’ has been giving us nothing but trouble for two years now.” Sonia leaned forward as she clutched her throbbing ribs. “And still, we have absolutely no idea who this guy is. Or if it’s even a guy, for that matter!”

“There’s something eerily familiar about The Hermit’s process though,” Carmen thought out loud. Ever since this new cyber threat had cropped up, whoever it was had been assisting criminals with their little passion projects—springing them from prison, supplying them with tech, even disabling whole electrical grids, all without ever being seen. And ever since Carmen had become aware of The Hermit’s existence, she had noticed subtle quirks in their work that pointed her directly to who she thought was almost certainly the culprit.

“Do you think you know who it might be?” Sonia inquired eagerly. “If you do, maybe we can rid ourselves of them once and for all.”

“If my hunch is right, The Hermit is none other than one of my old friends.” Carmen tapped her chin thoughtfully. She was sure of it, who else was good enough with computers to pull off such clean operations? “It has to be The Troll.”

“And who is this ‘The Troll?’” Sonia asked, holding up air quotes around the name. “And what’s up with all of these stupid monikers?” If Sonia would have been forced to take on some kind of cheesy villain name like that, she was even more glad that she passed up on becoming one of V.I.L.E’s little cronies.

“The Troll,” Carmen explained, ignoring Sonia’s jab at V.I.L.E’s villain-naming practice, “is an expert hacker who I had the pleasure of facing a few years back. He gave my own hacker—you know Player—a lot of trouble when we last went toe-to-toe.”

“You think he might be back?”

“I never found out what happened to him, and he hasn’t popped up in any arrest records, as far as A.C.M.E can tell. There’s a good chance that he’s still out there.”

“Well, What should we do?”

“Next time we catch wind of a plot… we’ll target the source, not the crime itself.”

“You want us to ignore a heist? Carmen that sounds…”

“If we don’t focus on pinning The Troll down now, he’ll just keep giving us trouble. A.C.M.E has the tech to pinpoint his location, and with that we can remove the mastermind from the equation,” Carmen explained. “We just have to focus entirely on finding him, even if that means letting one heist go unthwarted. Without their instigator, our thieves will be sloppy, and then we can round them up one by one, as usual.”

Sonia chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment. “Fine,” she relented. “But this better work.”

The Hermit knew that Carmen Sandiego had become aware of his presence. After all, he used to be her eye in the sky—the man in the chair, the guy in the white hat. He knew her better than anyone else.

Player stood from his desk chair and reached his arms straight into the air, stretching out his body for the first time in hours. He had pulled off another successful heist and had just terminated all communication with Mime Bomb. And he was ready to head home and get some shut eye.

“Another hard day’s work,” Player talked to himself as he grabbed his tablet and activated his security system for the night. “That new operative Carmen hired is very unpredictable in a fight… I’ll have to account for that in the future. She’s never been deployed on her own before.” Player had adopted the unsettling habit of carrying full conversations with himself. Though, that was to be expected when one lived alone and spent most of their time in an underground computer lab.

As he walked through the darkened streets, Player ran through the list of jobs he had slated for the next few days. He hadn’t meant to become the hottest new hacker for criminals, but here he was, scheduling his time like he was some sort of celebrity.

“Bust Paper Star from prison, assist this one guy with robbing the First National Bank in France, another couple jewel heists,” Player mumbled under his breath. “Pretty standard stuff I guess.”

Once again, his little hobby was beginning to bore him. At some point, he was going to have to entertain himself some other way, but what was more dangerous than breaking convicted criminals out of jail and assisting psychopaths with grand theft?

Player unlocked his apartment door, a muscle in his jaw popping as he clenched his teeth anxiously. If he kept going, if this kept escalating the way it had been for the past two years, he knew that pretty soon he would be worse than V.I.L.E.


	3. Chapter 3

“There’s been some chatter about springing your old friend Paper Star from prison tonight,” Chief explained to Carmen and Sonia in her usual holographic form. “We’ve been able to infiltrate and follow some channels, and we believe we have found your guy.”

“The Troll? Really?” Sonia’s face lit up and she cracked her knuckles eagerly. “Then let’s go get him.”

“Now, now,” Chief held up her hand calmly to Carmen’s partner, “we are still not certain if this Hermit character and The Troll are one in the same. We have to go into this expecting the unexpected.”

“With all due respect, Chief,” Carmen chimed in with a sly smile. “But I don’t think anyone else has the influence or the talent to pull off what The Hermit has.”

“Never mind what you might think,” Chief scolded. “Setting up any assumptions for this guy is a fool’s errand. But no matter who this is, you’ll be able to find your culprit in New York City, approximately fifty feet below the ground.”

“That’s a strange place to be,” Carmen observed.

“It seems like he’s set up his little crime hub under the city, somewhere in the subway tunnels,” Chief explained. “A clever choice, seeing as the meters of solid ground, and a seriously advanced cloaking program, have left us unable to pinpoint his exact location.”

“Wait,” Sonia interjected. She still had a tough time of maintaining a respectful tone with Chief, problems with authority and all, but everyone at A.C.M.E had gotten used to it—more or less.

Chief exhaled deeply and looked over at the young woman, whom she knew she had little control over. After all, she was technically in the employment of Carmen Sandiego and not herself.

“What seems to be the problem, Sonia?”

“You want to send us in there completely blind?” Sonia stood as she spoke, “There are, oh, I don’t know, hundreds of miles of track under New York.”

Chief, whose patience was being tested in a way it hadn’t been tested in years, shifted her weary gaze to Carmen. “We’ll book you a flight to New York ASAP. Also, this should be a covert operation, so I only want one of you on the scene. That is all.”

And with that, the pen from which Chief had been projecting went dark and fell on its side, suddenly devoid of all signs of life.

“Hey!” Sonia protested. She picked up the pen and clicked it a few times irritably. But nothing happened.

“That woman… ugh! First she can’t even help us pin the guy down, and now I’m going to have to stay home like a child.” She fell back on the couch, crossing her arms angrily. 

“Hey,” Carmen said softly as she sat down next to Sonia. “We’ve dealt with worse. And… I was actually thinking that maybe you should be the one to take this.”

“What?” Sonia suddenly perked up, an eager grin playing on her lips.

“If our culprit really is The Troll, or anyone else associated with V.I.L.E, like we suspect, then I can’t be the one to go. The Hermit probably has eyes all around the city, and most likely knows my face,” Carmen explained. “I wouldn’t be able to get near him. And on top of that, I’m confident that you can find him on your own.”

Sonia smiled broadly and nodded. “I won’t let you down, Carmen. I’ll catch The Hermit. I promise.

The 14-hour-long flight from Buenos Aires to New York city left Sonia sore and irritable, but even so, she was ready to hunt for The Hermit as soon as her plane touched down on the tarmac.

The city was a lot bigger than she had imagined it would be, and it smelled. But, no matter how uncomfortable this place made her, Sonia knew she had a job to do. And, luckily for her, it was a job she was fully equipped to take on.

In her understated motel room, Sonia immediately got down to business, perusing through the pages upon pages of intel on the city’s subway system that A.C.M.E had scrounged up.

According to the seemingly endless number of twisting layout plans, there were a bunch of abandoned subway stations strewn below the city. One of those, Sonia thought, would be where The Hermit was hiding.

(This is just a little drawing I did of Player when I had the idea for this fic. It's not great, because I'm still learning how to work digitally, but I hope you like it!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am absolutely floored by the amount of love this fic has gotten already! I'll plan on posting a new chapter every Wednesday, which won't be much of an issue because I have the majority of the story prewritten already. 
> 
> I hope you continue to enjoy my story. See you next week!


	4. Chapter 4

A.C.M.E was growing impatient with Sonia, and soon the twice-weekly check-in calls turned into daily lectures from Chief in which she mostly reprimanded Sonia for “not taking her post seriously.” So, Sonia did what was only natural, she told Chief she could do this alone, and turned off all of her communication devices.

Chief’s constant chastising only proved to make Sonia’s job that much more difficult. She had been tasked with finding The Hermit, and she would do just that. She knew it was risky, going dark like this, but she knew she was close, and she couldn’t have any more distractions. She only had a handful of places left to check, and she was going to do this, with or without A.C.M.E’s help.

Over the past month, Sonia had gotten used to the sprawling, dusty tunnels of the abandoned subway, almost as much as she had adjusted to the energetic city above.

New York was the perfect place to pull off covert operations. For example, although it was in the middle of early-morning rush hour, Sonia was easily able to slip past the throngs of people and make her way down into a new, uncharted section of the subway. Everybody who lived in this stinking city was too caught up in their own issues and schedules to pay any attention to what some silly girl was doing. It was invigorating.

No wonder a villain like The Hermit wanted to hide out here—he could walk out in the middle of the street and scream his identity at the top of his lungs, and his voice would simply be drowned out by the rat race.

As usual, the tunnels were almost uncomfortably hot, and the darkness closed in like a heavy veil. Sonia walked a long-forgotten stretch of track as she gnawed on a piece of red licorice she had picked up at a candy store along the way.

Despite the uncomfortable conditions, Sonia had grown quite laze faire about traipsing around under the city. Most days, she found herself aimlessly wandering, bored out of her mind, and wondering if A.C.M.E had been right about The Hermit’s approximate location.

But today, luckily or unluckily, was going to be different.

Right as Sonia was about to give up and turn back, she came out of the darkened tunnel and stumbled into a surprisingly bright section of the underground labyrinth. She shielded her eyes against the sudden light, thinking for a moment that she had walked through an outlet and onto an aboveground track.

After blinking the strain out of her eyes, Sonia realized that the light was not, in fact, the natural shine of the sun. The glow came from a wall of monitors, set up along a cluster of folding tables. A gaming chair sat empty in front of the astonishingly large computer setup.

Sonia stared for a moment before gasping in triumph, “I found it!”

She took another step further into the lab, but as her foot touched down, a metal screen—which had been embedded into the tunnel and completely hidden by the crumbling concrete—snapped shut directly behind her, cutting her off from the way she had come.

She quickly got moving, running past the computer lab to try her luck with the other side of the tunnel. But all that was down the other way was a dead end. The passageway had been stopped up with concrete years ago.

Not to be defeated, she hoisted herself up onto the platform and dashed up the stairs that, in a functioning subway stop, should have led to the surface. But to the young woman’s dismay, there was a heavy, unmovable metal sheet blocking her from the outside. She banged on it a few times, her fists turning red against the barrier.

She wilted and sat on the stairs, admitting the fact that she had fallen right into a trap. She looked down at her quickly-bruising hands and exhaled in frustration. Now she was in trouble.


	5. Chapter 5

As usual, Player had finally gone to bed at around four in the morning, and he was sleeping peacefully, curled up warm and content in his sheets. That is, until his security alarm jolted him awake at 8 a.m.

He groaned into his pillow, not yet fully registering what the blaring alarm from his cellphone meant. After a few seconds of attempting to sleep through the siren, his eyes shot open in realization. He leapt from bed and fumbled with his phone to look at the screen through his bleary, crusted eyes.

Large red font blinked over a black screen, “LAB COMPROMISED.”

Player knew that he should be worried, but instead a smile crept onto his face. “Things just got a little more interesting.”

It took him a few minutes to get himself together, but after he had haphazardly dressed himself in a nondescript black hoodie and some comfortable basketball shorts, he was on his way to meet his unwelcome guest. He was giddily delighted at the thought—mostly because the security system that he never had to use before actually worked. 

Player strolled through the streets casually. Despite his nefarious activities, Player had grown comfortable in his commute and in his ability to seem like a normal, upstanding, unassuming young man. He even made a habit of waving hello to the patrol car that he always passed on his way over. The cops inside always smiled and waved back.

That was the most effective way to live a life of crime, Player had quickly discovered—be the nicest person in the room, and nobody would dare suspect you of anything. Him? A mastermind hacker with an online criminal monopoly? Impossible.

It wasn’t long before he reached the entrance to his lab. When Player had first discovered the abandoned train platform, the only way in was through the tunnels below the city. However, that walk always took forever, and it was nerve wracking to maneuver around the numerous dangers that came with traversing the sprawling underbelly of the city—poisonous gas, flooding, the third rail that was energized with 600 volts of electricity at all times. Only an idiot would willingly take on such a risky endeavor.

So, to prevent having to go through so much trouble, Player had reconstituted a dilapidated service elevator. It dumped him right into his lab and, although it was now fully functional, the thing still looked very much out of order. Luckily, this meant that nobody else would dare to try it out—although Player did install a retinal scan so that only he could use the elevator anyway. All Player had to do was check to make sure nobody was looking his way, and slip inside.

When the doors opened up onto his secluded lab, Player was suddenly met with a very angry fist, attached to an even angrier girl.

Miraculously, he was able to dodge out of the way just in time to avoid getting his nose smashed in by his assailant. He quickly snapped up his most recent inventions, kissed them, and prayed that they worked before lobbing them at the intruder. They were magnetic handcuffs, activated when thrown, and designed to clasp automatically around a person’s wrists. To Player’s relief, they worked as planned, and the young woman was left staring in shock at her bound hands.

“Whoa there!” Player side-smiled and sat down easily in his chair. “It’s a little rude to try and beat up your humble host.”

“You’re not my host!” the girl spat angrily. “Now let me go!”

“When I saw that someone had infiltrated my lab, I assumed that it was an accident,” Player continued, ignoring her protests.

Judging by the skill with which she had attacked him, and the A.C.M.E-issued sunglasses she had tucked haphazardly into the breast pocket of her denim jacket, Player was pretty sure he knew what her deal was. “But, it seems like you’ve come here for a reason. You know who I am, don’t you? And, let me just spitball here, you’re with A.C.M.E?”

“That’s right!” Sonia usually announced that her allegiance wasn’t with A.C.M.E, but rather with Carmen Sandiego herself. She hated being associated with that stuffy organization if she didn’t have to be, but she was still wary of the possibility that the scrawny guy in front of her might know of Carmen. She would rather keep her name out of it in case the two had some sour history like Carmen had suspected.

“I was sent to arrest you for your crimes.” Sonia bluffed, “In a couple of minutes, a swarm of agents are going to burst in here to arrest you, so you might as well just come with me now.”

She was usually pretty good at bluffing, but even she could tell she was off her game. But could anyone really blame her? She was at the mercy of A.C.M.E’s most wanted. And although the guy seemed mild-mannered now, there was a chance he could snap at any moment.

Player laughed out loud and smiled. “If you’re going to lie to me, at least do it well. You’re all alone.” He was more than certain of that.

“Sorry for laughing, really,” he continued. “But why would A.C.M.E send you? You don’t look any older than, what, eighteen? I thought their agents were a little older.”

It wasn’t just her age, but something about this agent seemed eerily familiar to him. Though he simply chose to brush any familiarity off as run-of-the-mill déjà vu, a choice that he would later find himself regretting.

“I’m twenty,” Sonia blurted indignantly. “And what about you? I thought The Troll would be more than some scrawny teenager in a sewer.”

With an equal amount of defensiveness, Player clarified irritably, “I’m not a teenager.” His eyebrow twitched, but he continued smiling.

“Anyway…” he proceeded, unwilling to get into a petty argument about either of their qualifications. “What did you call me? The Troll?”

“Surprised that we figured you out, are you?” Sonia asked smugly.

Player laughed again, resting his elbow on his armrest and propping his head up with his hand casually. “Oh, but I’m not The Troll.”

“Y-you’re not?” She hadn’t actually ever seen The Troll, so she had just assumed that this was him. Suddenly, she was feeling a lot less confident.

“Of course not!” Player exclaimed. “I put The Troll out of business. I’m ten times the hacker he ever was, or ever could be.”

“Then who are you?”

“I’m The Hermit.” Player grinned. “Simple as that.”

“And what are you going to do with me, ‘The Hermit?’” Sonia glared at him hard. “Are you going to kill me?”

Player’s face went pale for a split second before his indifferent, eerily warm smile reappeared. He hadn’t ever planned on killing anyone, but a lump formed in his throat as he realized the gravity of what was happening here. He had an A.C.M.E agent captive in his laboratory. If he let her go, she would tell everyone, and they would come knocking to arrest him. But if he kept her here, they would all come searching for her anyway.

Although Player tried his best to hide his internal conflict, Sonia noticed the fear in his eyes almost right away. She recognized that look—the look of a kid who had gotten into something way too big for him to handle. Sonia had eyes like that once, back when she almost sold her soul to V.I.L.E, and when she thought she was good for nothing more than evil.

“Killing not your style, Hermit?” she ventured. She sat cross-legged on the floor of the computer lab, looking up at the kid skeptically.

Player ignored her and spun around in his chair. He cracked his fingers with wavering confidence and got to typing on one of his many computers, the light from the screen casting his back in shadow.

It seemed to Player that Sonia had only been lucky when she stumbled across his lab, which was good for him. A.C.M.E didn’t know where to find him, not really. And if this agent had any means of communication with headquarters, she would have called for help by now. Player still had the upper hand here. He just had to reach out to Chief and leave her a message, convince her to stay away and leave him alone.

Sonia interrupted his train of thought with another question, “Why _not_ kill me though? That would take care of all of your problems, right?”

Player paused and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, well. That’s too risky for me, killing an A.C.M.E agent. I would be in even worse trouble than I am now.” He hoped that that would be enough to get her to stop asking difficult questions. “Now be quiet. I have to work.”

“What are you doing?” Sonia tried to peer at his screen, but her vantage point made snooping impossible, and she was reluctant to move closer. This Hermit guy seemed mellow, and it was clear that he wasn’t fond of the idea of hurting her, but Sonia didn’t want to try his patience.

The Hermit offered no response, so Sonia simply huffed and dropped the matter. She stared at his back intensely. If he hadn’t had these handcuffs ready, Sonia had no doubt that she could have taken him down. The Hermit was of completely average build, maybe even on the skinnier side for a guy his age, and it was clear from the way he dodged her earlier that he had zero fighting skills. That knowledge just irked Sonia even more.

After a few more minutes of silence, Player finally connected to A.C.M.E and pulled a microphone to his lips. He spoke through a voice modulator of his own design, one that was pretty much impossible to unravel, “Hello A.C.M.E. This is The Hermit speaking.”

At A.C.M.E headquarters all the way in Seattle, Chief nearly spit out her coffee. Very few people had ever been able to hack directly into the A.C.M.E computer system, and the sudden announcement caught every single agent in the room off their guard.

After composing herself and setting down her coffee mug, Chief responded to the mysterious cybercriminal, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I have something of yours. A young agent.”

“Sonia,” Chief gasped, her composure breaking in a matter of milliseconds. She had been frustrated when Sonia went dark on her, but it was nothing out-of-the-ordinary for the rebellious young woman. Now, Chief wished that she had pressed the issue.

“So that’s her name…” Player grinned over at Sonia and wiggled his eyebrows before returning to his conversation with Chief. “I can’t believe that A.C.M.E is cold enough to send a little kid in to do their dirty work. That’s just neglectful. Almost… Evil.”

“What do you want, Hermit?” Chief demanded, her patience running thin.

“Call off looking for me, and I’ll hand Sonia over, safe and sound,” Player ordered. “I’m not really in the business of hurting people. This whole thing is, I guess you could call it a hobby. And murder isn’t very fun. Too messy.”

“I’m afraid we can’t make that deal.”

“Well, I suggest you mull it over, or else you better hunt me down quick,” Player added ominously. “Otherwise, it’s time to say bye bye to Sonia.”

He quickly cut the transmission and grabbed as much A.C.M.E info as he could before he erased any trace of his software from their systems. He let out a deep, tense breath once he was officially untraceable again. He had wanted his first public appearance as The Hermit to be something special, and he didn’t feel too great about painting himself as the type of person to needlessly hurt someone. But maybe his threat would work?

He had almost forgotten about his house guest. That is, until she spoke up again, “So you’re going to kill me _now_? They didn’t do what you wanted, after all.” Sonia shot a burning glare at the hacker.

Player exhaled deeply and, once again, he chose to ignore Sonia’s question. “Stick around. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Where are you going?”

“Gonna buy some Chinese food. Oh, and I need to get a couple of sleeping bags from my apartment so we can spend a few nights here while I wait for A.C.M.E to make a move.”

“You don’t live here?” Sonia asked, puzzled. “And why do you need Chinese food?”

“Well, to answer your first question, no. Why would I want to live in an old sewer drain?” Player yanked his hood over his head. “And, for your second question, I’m hungry and we both need dinner.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!! I'm still so surprised by the love this fic has gotten so far. Of course, the feedback hasn't all been good, but I'm enjoying writing it and interacting with people as I do! See you next Wednesday!


	6. Chapter 6

“How could I have let Sonia get captured?” Carmen lamented in the back of Zack and Ivy’s A.C.M.E-issued vehicle. “If I had gone with her…”

“If you had gone with her,” Ivy piped up from the passenger’s seat, “you would have also been captured.”

“Yeah, Carm.” Zack drummed his fingers anxiously against the steering wheel. “What would we have done if you went and got yourself captured too? That happened before, remember? It didn’t go well.”

“I guess you guys are right…” Carmen looked out the window. “But I still can’t imagine how scared she must be.”

“Sonia is as strong as you,” Ivy assured her. “You can bet she’s putting up a fight.”

“That aside…” Zack wondered out loud. “How are we gonna find her anyway? All we’ve got on him is that he’s ‘under New York City.’ That’s… broad.”

“And on top of that, this guy was able to get into the A.C.M.E computer system _and_ talk directly to The Chief without leaving any traces of his identity.” Ivy looked back at Carmen.

Carmen nodded, an idea suddenly bubbling up. “We have to reach out to a friend. The only friend we have who can find someone with nothing to go on.”

“Which friend?”

“Player, of course.”

While the idea of reaching out to Player again was great in theory, it was a lot harder than Carmen had hoped for. Luckily, Ivy had held onto her earpiece that Player had designed as a memento, and it seemed like it was still connected to something on the other end.

“Player?”

Nothing.

Carmen tried again, “Player are you there?”

After a few moments of silence, an unfamiliar female voice, tinted with a mild French accent came through the speaker, “Who is this?”

“Um…” Carmen paused in confusion before responding politely. “My name is Rosa,” she lied. “I’m looking for Player?”

“Oh, you must be one of my son’s online gaming friends.”

“Something like that,” Carmen said. “We had plans to meet for lunch tomorrow, but he forgot to give me his address. He hasn’t been answering his cellphone, and this is the only other way I know how to contact him.” A lot of lying, but Carmen could only hope that Player’s mother would buy it. This was the only way Carmen could think to track him down, and if this fell through, she would be back to square one.

“That boy.” The mother sucked her teeth irritably. “Of course he wouldn’t tell you where to find him. He up and left university without so much as a word and flew off to New York City to ‘follow his own dreams.’ Honestly.”

Wait, Carmen thought. Player hadn’t stayed at school? That wasn’t like him.

But she pushed that to the side for the moment and pressed his mom gently, “Sorry, ma’am but… His address?”

“Oh, of course.” She rattled off a street address and an apartment number. “And tell him to call me sometime, will you?”

“Of course, ma’am. Thank you for your help.” Carmen removed the earpiece and stared into middle-distance, still a bit shaken by the revelation that Player hadn’t been at school. What had happened?

She told herself that it was ridiculous, but she couldn’t shake the fear that this was her fault.

“Well, do you know where to find him?” Ivy asked eagerly.

“I do.” Carmen shook herself back to reality. “And he just so happens to live near where Sonia disappeared. If he helps us, we just might be able to crack his case wide open.”


	7. Chapter 7

Player whistled softly as he rode down in the elevator to reenter his underground lair. He had splurged on dinner, mostly because he felt bad for kidnapping Sonia and wanted to give her at least a half decent meal. He had two thick sleeping bags, and a pair of pillows shoved awkwardly into his backpack and the food was tied neatly into two plastic bags.

As soon as he entered the lab, he was met with a handcuffed fist to the face. This time, he had let his guard down—honestly, that dodge from earlier was a one-time bit of luck that Player should have known would come back to bite him eventually. He dropped the food as his hands went to hold his now-bleeding nose.

To his relief, it didn’t seem to broken. He dived out of the way of another jab and looked up at Sonia from where he had landed on the ground.

“Wait!” he yelled, holding up his hands protectively. “I’m not going to let you out of here, even if you beat me to a pulp! And if I’m unconscious, I can’t remove your cuffs.”

Sonia paused her attack and looked down at Player quizzically. “You’re taking off my handcuffs?”

“Well, yeah?” Player stood slowly. He dug into one of the Chinese food bags and fished out a couple of the scratchy brown paper napkins from inside. He sat in his chair, holding the napkins to his nose until the bleeding stopped.

Once he could no longer taste blood running down the back of his throat, he continued, “You can’t really eat in handcuffs. And I wouldn’t expect you to sleep that way either. You’re stuck here because of me so I might as well make you comfortable while I figure stuff out.” He beckoned her over. His strangely threatening persona was suddenly nowhere to be found.

Sonia approached him apprehensively, not buying his sweet, alarmingly caring demeanor for a second.

Player placed his thumb on a pad that was mounted to the side of the cuffs and said, “Unlock.” In response, the handcuffs came loose and fell to the ground with a clatter.

Sonia rubbed her wrists, her jaw set with skepticism. What game was he playing?

“Now, you can choose to beat me up if you like. We both know that you are more than capable,” Player said. “But, maybe we could eat something first? I bought all of this food, after all.”

Sonia hadn’t planned on having a meal with a madman, but she _was_ hungry. All she had eaten that day was that rope of red licorice from earlier, so she took The Hermit’s offer, albeit hesitantly.

She observed him quietly as they ate. She was seated on one of his tables, while The Hermit sat in his usual chair. His floppy brown hair needed a trim, and his fashion sense was strikingly unremarkable, yet suited him well. Sonia couldn’t help but wonder how a nice-looking young man could end up living this way.

Suddenly, The Hermit’s cellphone began to ring, shattering the tense silence. He jumped and took the phone from his pocket and let out a low sigh. He glanced at Sonia before turning away and answering, “Allô, m’man?”

French? Sonia’s eyebrows sprung up with curiosity. She couldn’t hear much of what the person on the other end was saying, but she could tell that whoever was speaking was a woman. She also made out the very beginning of her first sentence, “Hello, Peter!”

Peter. Sonia smirked. Interesting.

Player had been meaning to call his mom, but he felt weird speaking to her, knowing that he was committing somewhere between 5-6 felonies every day. He liked his mom, and he liked talking to her, but now was not a good time. Never was a good time. Still, he tried to sound polite over the phone. “Why are you calling, mom?”

“A mother can’t call her son to check up on him?” she asked defensively.

“Mom, of course you can.” Player leaned back in his seat. “So you didn’t have anything to talk about in particular? Because I’m kind of busy-”

“Well, I didn’t say that.” His mom finally got to the point of her call, much to Player’s relief. She explained, “A friend of yours talked to me through your old computer today. Someone named Rosa.”

Player’s blood suddenly went cold. His old computer?

The only people who could possibly access those channels were the members of what he always called “Team Red.” Rosa… It had to be Carmen. She was trying to find him. And now she had his home address.

His mom prattled on, unaware of the conflicted distress her son was in, “She said she had planned to have lunch with you, so I told her where to find you. So expect her at your apartment tomorrow. You should do a better job at telling your friends where you’re living these days. It’s just rude.”

“Yes, rude…” Player said absently. “I have to go mom. Thanks for the heads up.”

He didn’t give her a chance to say anything else before hanging up on her. He turned back to Sonia who was sitting across from him with an unsettling smile on her face.

“Nice chat with your mommy, Peter?”

Player sputtered for a moment. Why did his mom have to talk to loudly? He tried to think of a way to back out of it, but he just shot her a serious look instead.

“First of all, don’t make a habit of calling me that. No one calls me that. And anyway, there are hundreds of thousands of guys named Peter. It’s not like you know my last name.” He sat back smugly in his chair and went back to his dinner.

“Maybe not,” Sonia contemplated, her own smile unwavering. “Est-ce un Français de famille, peut-être?*” * _Is it a French surname, perhaps?_

Player had answered the phone in French instinctually. He didn’t grow up speaking it at home all the time, but his mom had lived in a French-speaking town in Quebec and she only learned English when she met his dad. French was a fairly regular part of his life, and he was kicking himself for being so stupid. One wasn’t supposed to give away such crucial information to one’s enemies.

He tried to appear indifferent, but he went stiff, and Sonia noticed. “Just because I know French doesn’t mean I am French. I could have taken it in high school.”

“I guess that’s true,” Sonia agreed. He totally had a French last name.

That didn’t narrow down much, but was it great to see The Hermit, or rather, Peter so bothered. “But people who take a few years of high school language classes down typically address their parents that way, do they?”

Player spun away in his chair to hide the worry that he knew was visible in his face. “You’re not going to get me to tell you anything. I’m not that easy to manipulate.”

“That’s not a problem.” Sonia tapped her fork against her takeout box and shrugged. “I’ll figure you out soon enough. And it seems that, since you’re content on keeping me alive and well, I have all the time in the world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I chose the name Peter as Player's given name because he used it as an alias once in an episode of the show. I assume that in canon that's not his real name, but I liked it enough to use it in this fic.
> 
> Also, he lives in Canada as everyone knows, so that's why his mom's first language is French. I deviated from canon for this plot point because there's no indication in the show that he knows French at all, but it's not that much of a stretch. That is all! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!!


	8. Chapter 8

Spending the night on the cold floor of his computer lab in a flimsy sack had left Player with a serious crick in his neck. He also hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep, considering he was terrified of Sonia trying to smother him if he ever let himself drift off. Living with a kidnapped A.C.M.E agent in his basement was not conducive to a healthy life style.

His alarm went off at 10 a.m., as he had set it the night before. He wanted to be back at his apartment in time for Carmen’s visit, and he needed time beforehand to hide any evidence of his illegal activities. While Player didn’t want A.C.M.E to figure out who he was, he wanted Carmen to know even less.

He was still angry with her for breaking her shallow promise to “always be there for each other,” but he never wanted Carmen to know that he had become a tried and true criminal.

Player sighed to himself. Did it make it worse that he so obviously realized how wrong he was?

He peeled himself out of his sleeping back, feeling deflated and uncomfortable. His quiet movements roused Sonia from her fitful slumber across the room.

She sat up and narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “Where are you off to, Peter?”

“I told you to not call me that, Sonia,” Player retaliated, stretching out his stiff muscles. “I’m going home to meet up with a… friend. I’ll be back in a little while.” He walked to his elevator and in a few seconds, he was up and out.

Luckily for Player, he had been smart enough to contain most of his crime stuff to his computer lab, so he didn’t have to clean up his apartment too much. But, that left him with two hours of sitting anxiously on the edge of his bed, waiting for Carmen to come knocking.

And when she finally did, Player knew that he wasn’t ready.

Carmen stood outside of the door after her gentle knock, her hands twiddling anxiously in her hoodie pocket. Madame Rouge wasn’t usually one to feel nervous—she had been through a lot, after all—but seeing Player again after the way she had ended things made Carmen feel sick to her stomach.

There was the faint sound of rustling, from inside the little apartment, and after a few seconds, the door swung open. There was Player, looking a lot older, and a lot more tired, than two years before.

“Good afternoon, sir,” Zack said, offering a little curtsy. “We’re looking for our little buddy Player he’s about yea high and-“

Ivy gave her brother a sharp jab in the ribs, cutting him off. “This _is_ Player, bro.”

“Wait…” Zack rubbed his eyes dramatically before grinning wide. “You’ve gotten taller!”

“Of course he has!” Ivy crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s, like, twenty by now.”

“Um…” Player interrupted their banter with a lopsided smile. “My mom told me you were coming. What’s up, Red?”

Despite what was clearly supposed to be perceived as a friendly smile, Carmen almost flinched at how heavy and angry Player’s voice had become. And it was clear by the dullness in his eyes that he wasn’t the happy-go-lucky kid he had once been. Something had gotten lost—or Carmen was even inclined to say that something had snapped—along the way. Her arms broke out into goosebumps at the thought that wormed its way into her head next, “He looks like one of V.I.L.E’s cronies.”

She shook that thought to the back of her mind and smiled softly at her old friend. He was probably still mad at her, but this was Player. No amount of time could change that. “Can we come in? We need your help with something.”

“Sure.” Player shrugged and stepped to the side of the entryway to allow Carmen, Ivy and Zack inside. It was tiny and with the four of them, there was barely enough room to stand.

Player sat on his bed to give the rest of them more room. “So, Red. What do you need?” he asked. The faster he did whatever she wanted him to do, the faster he could get her out of his hair. He still needed to deal with Sonia, and he didn’t want Carmen here tripping him up.

He shifted his eyes warily between Ivy and Zack. Once, he saw the brother and sister as close friends, but now that they were both top A.C.M.E agents, they were enemies.

Zack fidgeted a little under Player’s stare and looked over at Ivy uncomfortably.

Carmen sat in Player’s desk chair. “I’m sorry to come after all these years to ask for your help. But my friend has gone missing. You sort of know her, actually. She’s the art thief who we stopped A.C.M.E from recruiting in Mexico a few years ago.”

“Sonia…” Player muttered under his breath.

“You remember her?”

“Yep!” Player backtracked quickly. “How could I forget someone like that?”

Player’s throat went dry as he smiled at Carmen politely. That’s why Sonia had seemed so familiar—they _had_ met, indirectly. They had never spoken, and he had never seen her face, but he had caught glimpses of her through security cams during the Day of the Dead debacle.

“Good.” Carmen chose to ignore the sweat accumulating on Player’s brow. “She’s my combat partner and she traveled to the city to track down this new cybercriminal who calls himself The Hermit-”

“Why should I help you, Red?” Player cut her off mid-explanation. “You don’t talk to me for years, you break your promise to stick together. And you expect me to help you track down the girl who you replaced me with?”

While he did want to get out of this situation mostly to avoid talking about Sonia, everything that he had said expressed his real feelings that had been stored inside of him like festering garbage for the past two years.

“I didn’t replace you.” Carmen blinked, taken aback by the outburst.

“Didn’t you?” Player stood, his façade of niceties slipping.

Carmen stood from her seat and got into a defensive position instinctually at Player’s sudden hostility. She held her hand out in warning.

Player’s anger subsided for a moment and he saw the fear in the three pairs of eyes staring back at him. His shoulders sagged and he turned away in shame. “Just leave.”

“Player…” she said as she moved forward to comfort him.

He turned back to her sharply and snapped, “Leave, Red!”

Carmen exhaled softly. “Okay, Player… Sorry for bothering you.” She turned away and walked out of the apartment, beckoning Ivy and Zack to follow.

Once they had all gone, Player covered his face with his hands sunk to the ground. He had fallen a lot farther than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. So I got a question about the timeline, so I shall explain. 
> 
> First, ages. Player was roughly 16 at the end of the series. This is four years later, so he's 20. Sonia is also 20, because I just assumed that she was the same age as Player. There was never really a confirmation for her age. 
> 
> Second, timeline. As I said, this is four years after the events of the show, but three years after the events of the epilogue at the end of the last episode. That epilogue took place a year after the events of the show, and I took it into account because it was implied that Carmen was back in action. This means that Player was probably back in action. This epilogue would have happened when Player was 17, around when he would probably be in his last year of high school. Carmen and Player's split (seen in the prologue of this story) happened between 6 months and a year after the epilogue, making Player no older than 18. Now, two years later, he's 20. 
> 
> Carmen teamed up with Sonia the year he emerged as The Hermit, making her around 19 when she was recruited.
> 
> If people are still confused, I can probably draw up a quick timeline sheet when I'm free? Keep in mind, I am a junior in college and I have a job writing for a newspaper, so this is not the only thing I have going on. Please be kind if I can't answer all of your comments and questions.


End file.
